


In Another Time

by Buffintruda



Category: Bartimaeus - Jonathan Stroud
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon Compliant, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, djinn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-11 21:17:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10474617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buffintruda/pseuds/Buffintruda
Summary: A collection of various short one-shots posted on tumblr





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Kitty, Nathaniel, and Bartimaeus hang out. A modern au

“You can all stay at my house as late as you’d like,” Kitty said. “But if you want food, you’re going to have to dig it out of the fridge yourself, and my parents are coming home in around half an hour.”

“Guess I’ll leave by then. No need to endure unnecessary awkwardness,” Bartimaeus said.

“Kitty’s parents are nice,” Nathaniel defended. “They like me.”

“Only because you’re an ambition-filled, capitalistic, straight-a student who is as silver-tongued as a politician,” Bartimaeus retorted.

“They do kind of think that,” Kitty admitted. “Though not quite in those terms. I think they’re hoping that either you’ll straighten me out into a successful law-abiding conservative person or that I’ll marry you and become that by proxy.”

Nathaniel sputtered indignantly for a moment before Kitty added, “They don’t know us well.”

“I’d feel mollified,” Nathaniel said, “If I thought you were talking about me not really being an ambitious lying politician wanna-be, but I’m sure that what you really mean is that no one could hope to tame you, so...”

“Eh, you’re not so bad,” Kitty said, looking pleased at his comment.

“As if he could  _ straighten _ you out,” Bartimaeus smirked, winking at Kitty.

She snorted, “They think that I’m not ‘really gay’ or something because I’m bi. Like, that eventually I’ll figure out that I was really straight the whole time.”

“Yeah, I’m definitely not the person to encourage anyone to be that kind of straight,” Nathaniel said.

“But my parents don’t know that, now do they,” Kitty sighed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bartimaeus has a job in 19th century England. Canon compliant

It was another job. Some petty magician trying to one up his rival. I’d done it a thousand times.

This time, it was in England. I had been summoned there often recently, since Gladstone’s defeat of Prague, a few decades earlier.

As a small spider, I snuck into the office of the magician I was sent after. There were a few magical alarms inside the room, and a trap or two, but they were nothing I couldn’t handle. It was pitiful security, but she was not a high ranking official. Neither was my master; I was probably one of the highest level spirits he had ever summoned.

I was searching her office for anything that could be used against her. After all, the British government was  _ far _ too civilized for its employees to fight each other outright. They had to be sneaky about it.

I dropped down, in my favored form of an Egyptian boy, and began rooting through her desk. There were lots of official documents and such, but nothing incriminating.

On the top of her desk was only a newspaper, pens, and some summoning-related materials, so I ignored that, moving onto the cabinet in the corner. It took some digging, the details of which, I won’t bore you with, before I found what I was looking for. A couple of papers, buried between reports of the textile industry’s economy, recorded various amounts of money from multiple people.

Bribes, I figured. Those weren’t uncommon, and I could think of no law-abiding reason for hiding records of unlabeled sums of money. I could work with this, find out who the names belonged to, maybe get some solid dirt on her.

I did a quick check through the rest of the room, but there was nothing else. Before I left, I returned to the desk, and the newspaper on it. The date wasn’t hard to find. December 4th, 1878. I did the math in an instant. Two thousand and two years. The two thousandth year after Ptolemy’s death had come and gone without me noticing.

I usually didn’t care much about dates, of course. They were human constructs, unreliable and inconsequential, for the most part.

Still.

Two thousand years had passed by, and I had been in the Other Place, unaware of the moment.

Two thousand years, and he had been forgotten, by all except by me, in every way that would have mattered to him.

Two thousand years, and I still wore his face.

Two thousand years, and I still mourned him, still regretted that I hadn’t protected him, still hadn’t forgotten his impossible hope of peace between our kinds.

Two thousand years.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Egyptology au

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was inspired by this post: http://coelagirl.tumblr.com/post/149248285043/i-have-just-refinished-the-bartimaeus-trilogy-so

When John Mandrake inherited a small fortune after his adopted parents’ death, he turned a small hobby into a full-time occupation, and found himself in middle of the hot Egyptian desert, dozens of miles from any current civilization. Despite spending most of his day watching the workers dig from under a tree, his face and hands, unprotected by clothes and used to the overcast London skies, were painfully red.

“How are you doing this morning?” Bartimaeus asked cheerfully. This man was reputed to know the area better than anybody else and spoke fluent English, so Mandrake had hired Bartimaeus to show him the best locations to find ancient remains. It had been two weeks, without so much as a mummified cat.

“Well, in the  _ hours _ everyone but you have been up, nothing was found,” Mandrake said.

Bartimaeus shrugged, unbothered by his unspoken complaint. “If you pay me to spend my day out here, doing nothing, then I will spend as much of it doing nothing as I can.”

“That’s the problem!” Mandrake cried. “It’s been weeks and nothing’s been found! You haven’t done an ounce of fruitful work.”

“You need patience. Everything in this occupation takes time.” He smirked.

“I don’t expect to find another King Tut in a day,” Mandrake said frustratedly. That discovery, made two years prior, was what had interested him in Egyptology, pushing him to find something even bigger. “But there hasn’t been  _ anything. _ You’re supposed to know the best places, where remains already exist!”

“I do,” Bartimaeus said, dark eyes revealing nothing.

“What do you gain from pointing me in the wrong directions?” he demanded. “I pay you more if we find anything of value. Why won’t you just comply?!”

Something angry shifted in Bartimaeus’s face. “So you can take credit for work you did not do, without a mention of us who have shown you where to look? So you can loot graves, searching for information, which if I had tried to find and present would have been dismissed because of my ‘savagery’? So you can show off to the world your dominance over my country and twist its history to fit your narrow views of how the world should be?”

He gaped at Bartimaeus, surprised by the sudden change of tone, almost (though definitely not quite) frightened by him. What he said had never occurred to Nathaniel, and as he wondered about the truth to Bartimaeus’s words, for half an instant, he nearly felt guilty...

Mandrake forced down a wave of irritation at the nonsense his guide had just spat out. His work, for the British Empire, would benefit and enlighten all. Bartimaeus was probably just trying to weasel more money out of him. Mandrake wished he could fire Bartimaeus, but it would take too long to find someone else. He just had to make the other man comply, somehow.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Ring of Solomon: a modern au

Inside the dusty, empty room of the antique store, Asmira glanced around the crowded shelves. There was nothing that struck her as something especially fitting for her mother’s birthday. Holding back a sigh, Asmira moved closer to a cabinet, to examine it better. She hoped she could find a gift quickly. There were bigger concerns in her life, namely the Solomon Corporations, a company that was taking business away from the one she worked at.

Next to a row of lanterns was an old lamp, covered in a thick layer of dust. Curious, she swiped a finger across the surface, revealing a gold outside that somehow still felt smooth despite the age that the dust on it seemed to indicate. Intrigued, and Asmira carefully lifted it off the shelf, rubbing the rest of the dust off with the hem of her shirt.

Without warning, a giant cloud of something almost like smoke spilled out of the spout, collecting onto the floor and building up into a humanoid figure. Asmira gaped, nearly dropping the lamp. As the silhouette solidified, the head turned towards her direction. Instinctively, she schooled her expression into a neutral face.

“You released me, hooray for you, congratulations, and all that,” the being droned. “Three wishes, can’t wish for more wishes, can’t break the fundamental rules of the universe, so on and so forth, I’m sure you know the deal.”

“You’re a djinni?” Asmira managed, remembering the stories her mother told her as a child.

“Obviously,” the djinni said.

This seemed impossible, too good to be true, but Asmira was a fast adapter. Asmira figured that if she took time to think and considered everything, she could safely use the djinni’s power. The characters in those cautionary tales about being careful when wishing were never as cautious as she planned to be.

Three wishes. That should be enough to ruin the Solomon Corporations. If there were any extra wishes, she could use it for some greater cause, like eliminating poverty or bigotry or something, though she would have to take a long time to think of the best way to ask for that, so it wouldn’t backfire.

“Are there limits to the time I have to ask the wishes?” she asked.

“Not technically,” the djinni said. “But if someone steals the lamp from you, you don’t have wish-making power anymore. And I’ll get really bored in the meantime.”

“I’m Asmira,” she said. “What should I call you?”

“Bartimaeus,” the djinni said impatiently. “So, wishes? Gold? Power? Popularity? You name it, I’ll grant it.”

“Bartimaeus,” Asmira said, after a long moment of running words through her head. “I wish for you to assist me in stopping the success of the Solomon Corporation, using the fullest extent of your capabilities, in a way that appears natural to all except me and you, and in a way that will not bring any harm or blame to me or any person who is not associated with the Solomon Corporations.”

He glared dolefully at her. “You’re one of those ones. Can’t ask for something quick and easy, can you? Well, your wish is my command or whatever.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A post canon fic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based off part of this post: http://amorous-pigeon.tumblr.com/post/162369467734/this-is-what-happens-after-ptolemys-gatemore

From my formless state in the Other Place, I felt the first tug of a summons to Earth. After Nathaniel had died, the word had spread that I was dead too, so I knew there was only one person who would be summoning me. Since she had done what only one other person had ever done and followed me to my world, I didn’t mind. Kitty Jones was a fun conversationalist too, and she never asked me to do anything, unlike most masters.

 

While I waited for the summons to gather enough strength to take me to Earth, I pondered what Kitty wanted to call me for this time. Many times, it was to update me on the spirit situation on Earth or ask for advice on politics and such. As someone who had been around for quite a large part of human history, I had a lot of helpful tips to give.

 

My summoning, I thought impatiently after a bit, was taking quite a long time. Normally, it started out weak and increased in strength until I gave in and let the magician’s power pull me to Earth. This time, it felt almost like someone had opened a door for me and was now waiting to see what I would do. There was no pull, increasing or otherwise. Cautiously, I went through.

 

The journey was in many ways similar to how it always was. My free, massless state of being was forced through interdimensional boundaries into a solid form in a matter-filled and ordered world. It was as painful as it always was. The gates and walls I passed through were in the same order and had the same intensity as they always did, no more, no less. But this time I was pushing myself through of my own free will. I could have turned back at any moment.

 

I materialized in the familiar surroundings of Kitty’s living room wearing Ptolemy’s shape, as I often did around Kitty. He had his arms crossed, and a vaguely irritated expression was on his face.

 

“You call that a summoning? I barely felt it. I had to push my own way into this world. A  _ little _ effort would be nice.” I was a little concerned that something had gone wrong to cause such a weak call but not too much. Kitty was clearly alive and healthy in front of me.

 

Kitty rolled her eyes at me and folded her arms. “I was making it  _ optional _ . So you could choose whether or not to come. I wasn’t summoning you, just asking you over.”

 

“Oh.” I stared at her, stunned into silence. Something inside of me felt like it was breaking (which was impossible, since there was only essence, no bones or organs like you lot). It struck me as something Ptolemy would have delighted in. Nobody else ever would have considered such a thing. “Er. Thanks,” I stammered.

 

“It’s nothing,” Kitty said, though she looked pleased with herself. “I just figured that most of the summoning is superfluous if you aren’t trying to enslave the spirit you’re calling. I fiddled with some of the Latin, and voila. Here you are. You’re my friend, Bartimaeus. I didn’t want to  _ force _ you to come whenever I wanted to talk.”

 

It sounded so simple and obvious, the way she said it. Of  _ course _ she would put such trust in me. Of  _ course _ she would mess about with a process that was deadly if done incorrectly, using an ancient language that she had been studying for only a couple of years. Of  _ course _ it was an imposition on me if she chose when and where I came into this world. I didn’t think that anybody had bothered to make an effort to treat me like a person like this before.

 

Even Ptolemy hadn’t had the chance to do something like that. He hadn’t included the protection clauses (which was a first), but unlike Kitty, he had been fourteen and only had a couple years to figure everything out before he died. So far, Kitty had mostly done what Ptolemy had already done (it wasn’t that I was ungrateful or anything though, since she was the only other person to even try), but now she was taking her own steps further.

 

Kitty was ambitious and strong-willed, and I had no doubt that she would make a very significant impact on the British government and on the way that spirits were viewed and used. But I didn’t think she would rewrite the way of summoning us. I didn’t even know how to feel with all the emotions welling up in me. The further I considered the implications of her actions, the stronger my astonishment grew. I knew that even with this new freewill, I would never want to refuse any of Kitty’s summons.

 

“Nobody else would have done that for me,” I said at last.

 

“I’m going to change that,” Kitty promised, and she looked so fierce and certain that even if I hadn’t already promised myself that I would do anything for her, I would have made a decision to do so right then. After what she had just done, I fully believed she could do anything she put her mind to.

 

“This way of summoning could change a lot. We won’t have to be at the beck and call of a master anymore. Nobody’s made an advancement like that since the first people figured out how to bring us here from the Other Place. I wonder if there’s a way of allowing free passage between our worlds.”

 

Kitty’s eyes lit up, and I could see her already thinking of ways that could work. “There probably is, but it’s going to take me way more than a couple of years to figure that out.”

 

Part of me wanted to protest that I didn’t necessarily mean that  _ Kitty _ needed to find the way, but I knew her well enough to know that she would never back down from a challenge.

 

"I’ll not pretend I know what I’m doing, but I like to think I’m carrying on Ptolemy’s work,” she continued. “It’s the least I could do."

 

“Kitty,” I told her. “I don’t think there’s anybody who could bring freedom to spirits and peace between both of our kinds as well as you could. This is going to be the start of a new era for all of us.” And I believed it wholeheartedly.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexandria era canon divergence

“All this travelling has been amazing,” Ptolemy said one evening in the depths of a Yucatán forest.

Rekhyt, wearing the guise of a young human, raised an eyebrow but did not comment on the non-sequitur remark. “Now are you glad you listened to me when I told you to leave Alexandria?”

“Of course, Rekhyt. You know I am.” Since leaving his home city to travel the world, Ptolemy had learned and seen so much more than he could have ever imagined. He had filled and published books with his observations and experiments and all the knowledge he had gained about spirits and magic from the people he had met. 

“Told you so,” Rekhyt said for what felt like the hundredth time.

Ptolemy rolled his eyes. “So you did.”

In truth, Ptolemy felt Rekhyt’s smugness was justified. Although it had taken a lot of convincing to get him to leave, Ptolemy had experienced so many wonderful things in the world, from the Kushite Kingdom to the remains of the Maurya Empire to the Han dynasty and most recently the Maya cities, as well as lands far between and beyond each of these. Ptolemy had seen more of the universe than any human before him, and he had shared all that information as best he could. He could not regret that.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity you’ve given me to go everywhere that I have,” Ptolemy continued. “But I think it is soon time to make my final journey.”

Rekhyt frowned, appearing too concerned to have missed the implications of Ptolemy’s words. “What do you mean, ‘final’?”

“I getting old. I won’t be able to do this forever.” 

“You’re what, thirty six? Humans can live twice that age.”

“Even in the best circumstances, I was never going to live long. I never fully recovered from the Other Place, and age has only made things worse. Frankly, it’s a surprise I’ve lasted even this long.”

“Ptolemy—”

“This fact won’t change by your arguing,” Ptolemy said. Rekhyt fell silent, one of the only times he had ever done so. “I have one last favor to ask of you, old friend.”

“Anything.” Rekhyt sounded so diminished from his usual boisterous self that he didn’t even seem like the same person.

“I would like to make one last journey,” Ptolemy said carefully. He knew he was asking a lot, even if he was fairly certain that Rekhyt would not refuse. “Only if you agree to it. I wouldn’t be planning on returning.”

“From where?”

“The Other Place. Will you let me come to your home one last time?”

Rekhyt’s eyes lit up in understanding, and he grinned. “Well, it’s certainly a better option than dying, if you won’t get tired of spending an eternity with me and a bunch of other spirits.”

“Never,” Ptolemy promised.

“What do you think will happen when your body on Earth dies? Nothing like it has ever been done. Do you think you’ll turn into a spirit?”

“I don’t know,” Ptolemy said with a grin, “but I can’t wait to find out.”


End file.
